Food cooking and eating – stories and ideas from a passionate foodie

We were due to visit our friends in Cheltenham (old neighbours actually) on 27th December after our Family meals in the South East. We had a bit if mild food poisoning, so had to call off. So when we went last weekend, Judy had kept the menu the same – so we had our Christmas food mid February!

The main course was an all in one pot sort of dish. Chicken, chorizo sausage (with a kick of heat), chick peas tomatoes and a bit of chicken stock. At Christmas it would have been left over turkey. Judy had fried the chicken first with a bit of garlic and onion. She de-glazed the pan with some lemon juice and a bit of white wine. In the oven dish, then cooked (covered) at 170 deg for 45 minutes. Lovely with some extra vegetables.

Pudding was a rather more OTT affair. Judy is renowned in the whole of the Cheltenham area for her Pavlova. Her slightly chewy but fluffy meringues are indeed a thing of wonder. This pudding was built around three frisbee sized meringue biscuits, and the sandwich layer between filled with Bailey’s enhanced whipped cream. The top was made very festive with gold hundreds and thousands, and broken up pieces of after eight mints pushed into the surface.

This is not exactly a nutritionists delight. But it was Christmas after all!

Mike opened the second bottle of red to help the cheese go down. We slept well.